KUALA LUMPUR – Muslim Consumers Association Of Malaysia (PPIM) today slammed Astro for not following orders given by the cabinet and continue to increase charges on its users.
Chairman of PPIM, Tunku Azwil Tunku Abdul Razak said, his side hopes that they could have a meeting with Minister of Information Communications and Culture, Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim as soon as possible so that this issue could be settled.
“PPIM has tried to set a date to meet Rais but there are still no answers, with the situation that we are going through right now, we need to express this issue and proposal that this association has to the ministry to ensure that consumers are protected.
“Astro seemed to have continue with their decision to increase charges, ignoring orders given out by the government previously, we can’t let this keep on happening,” he stressed.
He made the statement when he was contacted by Mynewshub.my here today.
Recently, Rais had announced government’s decision to reject the proposal made by the paid-television station.
Astro might even have to face possibilities to be fined or compounded for distributing the notice of increased charges to its customers without any approval from MCMC.
The campaign to boycott Astro began when more than 70 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are led by PPIM had urged three million and supporters to not pay their bills for three months in a row to the paid-television station.
The orders also include boycott on products that have been advertised at the station.
This measure was taken when warnings and claims that was made previously was ignored by Astro and the station seemed even more arrogant and kept their stand on the matter.
Regarding the boycott, Tunku Azwi said, they believe that the action had given a great impact.
“Astro have started to send short messaging system (SMS) to warn customers that they would stop their service to our members that do not pay their bills, this means that this campaign is already starting to pay off,” he said.
Not just that, Tunku Azwil added, PPIM is now getting active to spread their campaign via websites and the association’s blog and the response that they have gotten so far is promising. – SYAHRIL A. KADIR (Mynewshub.my)